Protestantism before the Martin Luther Reformation.....?
Did protestantism/non-catholic Christianity exist before the reformation, or did it come about through the reform? And if it did exist before did they follow the bible that included the apocrypha?
Christians came first. Then the Catholics broke away from Christianity. The Protestants were ex-Catholics, NOT ex-Christians. There are no Protestants today. They are either Catholic or Christian.
The Bible contained the 7 books you speak of YES was the Christian bible prior to the reformation. (and still is today for Catholics). Jesus himself read those 7 books in his version of the Septuagint.
Also, Christianity was Catholic before the reformation, accept for a few heresies that died out, and the schism of the Orthodox Church (which was more of a geographical fight rather than a doctrinal one...Catholics believe the Orthodox still have valid sacraments and Apostolic Succession...they are Catholics without a Pope, but they do have other authoritative heads)
Jan Hus was, in effect, a Protestant, and was burned at the stake in 1415, nearly 70 years before Martin Luther was born.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hus
John Wycliffe, widely regarded among modern Protestants as one of the forerunners of the Reformation, lived earlier still (d. 1384). He was exhumed and his remains burned as a condemnation of his 'heresy'.
There certainly were many heretics before Luther: John Wycliffe and Savonarola, to name only two.
Yes, they followed the complete Bible. The apocrypha have never been part of the Bible, unless you are calling Apocrypha those books that were removed by Protestants.
And don't listen to Chris the pastor.
Non-catholic Christianity definitely existed before the Reformation. If you read the New Testament, there is no mention of a "pope" that sits in place of Jesus on earth. This belief in the papacy and other parts of Roman Catholic doctrine grew up over time and have little or nothing to do with the Bible.
However, the term "Protestant" comes from the idea of "protest"; referring to the "protest" of Martin Luther and others against the Roman Catholic Church.
So did non-Roman Catholic Christianity exist before Martin Luther? Yes.
Did "Protestantism" exist before Martin Luther? No, since it was the movement that Luther championed against the Roman Catholic Church.
The Apocrypha were not considered to be canonical (i.e., they were not considered part of the Bible). The traditional Christian view (dating back before the rise of the Roman Catholic Church) of the Apocrypha was that those writings were not considered sacred scripture but were helpful or interesting nonetheless. Martin Luther and the publishers of the King James Version of the Bible held this view (which is why the Apocrypha is included in early Protestant Bibles).
1) There were some people before Luther, who toyed with the idea of walking away from Holy Mother Church... however, they quickly died out for lack of following, as everyone knew that there was only ONE CHURCH...
2) It wasn't until Luther steeped in, did the "reformation" otherwise known as mass heresy took place.
3) As for the Apocrypha... these are actually referring to the Jewish added texts. If you are speaking in Protestant terms, then Protties are referring to the Deuterocanonical books.
4) The Deuterocanonical books have always been in the OT since 397AD... Luther removed them in the 16Th century and called them the Apocrypha
So it wasn't until roughly the 16Th century that the Protties received their stripped version of the Bible from Luther...
Protestantism before the Martin Luther Reformation.....?
